Wednesday, September 11, 2013

EXTRA: Cook is hardball w/ softball

The
Cook County Board had serious issues (cremation instead of burial for the
indigent, constitution of the Metra commuter rail board) on its agenda
Wednesday.

Yet
what was it that seemed to generate the most enthusiasm amongst the officials
who represent Illinois’ largest county?

SOFTBALL.
OR SHOULD I say a gold-colored cup filled with a ratty-looking, dinged up ball
that was put on display as the “trophy” won by the Cook County softball team.

For
the past three years, the team consisting of staffers from various county
government agencies has played games against other government-inspired teams.

Such
as the Illinois governor, the mayor and the City Council of Chicago (separate
teams, you wouldn’t expect them to play together?). The city treasurer. Heck,
even the Chicago-based staff of the federal government’s General Accounting
Office.

County
officials passed a resolution declaring themselves the champions for the third
straight year of this competition – pointing out that in three seasons, they
are undefeated.

AS
IN 20-0 since 2011.

Not
bad, although I wonder what would happen if Cook County were to take on one of
the teams from the Illinois Legislature – where the state Senate and House of
Representatives take each other on annually for some of the most intense
sporting bragging rights ever claimed.

WHITE: Never could top Ernie Banks

Or
if an Illinois secretary of state team containing one-time Chicago Cubs minor
leaguer Jesse White himself (who’s more athletic at age 78 than most people are in
their prime) were to take on the county ballplayers?

But
it seems that the county will keep at their play – county Board President Toni
Preckwinkle says she plans to take the field in 2014 along with her colleagues.

ALTHOUGH
COUNTY COMMISSIONER Deborah Sims, D-Chicago, said she was skeptical anybody
would be willing to play against Cook ever again.

PRECKWINKLE: Wants to play

“I’d
advise you not to win so much, or nobody will want to play with you,” she
quipped.

And
Preckwinkle had the final say; claiming the cup on display at the county board
meeting ought to be treated like the Stanley Cup (which goes on tour so the
fans can see it, up close).

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.